CURRANTS. 667 



trade in this produce, which might have grown up at an early 

 date, was arrested by the plague which devastated Europe, and 

 assisted, concurrently with the invasion of the barbarians, in 

 making Western Asia and Mesopotamia the desert which it 

 has remained. The disease, as its later name, the Levant plague, 

 implies, remained endemic in south-eastern Europe. 



Nothing seems to me to indicate more clearly the growth 

 of trade with the East, during the fifteenth and the beginning 

 of the sixteenth century, than the frequent use of this fruit and 

 its declining price. It is, I think, also clear that exceptionally 

 dear years, such as 1403, 1422, 1430, and 1431, point to de- 

 ficient crops of the article, while some of the very cheap years 

 may equally indicate abundant supplies. These low rates con- 

 tinue till 1545, when the price suddenly rises to IQS. a dozen. 

 In 1572 and 1573 it is IQS. 6d. and 7^. 6d. But even in 

 the last few years of the period before me, it does not rise 

 to such a height as it reached in certain years of the fifteenth 

 century. 



It will be noticed that the final rise in the price of currants 

 is not nearly so considerable as that in other articles of con- 

 sumption. This is not to be ascribed to the fact that the 

 demand was diminished, for though the trade with England, 

 as we know from the history of Elizabeth's Charters to the 

 Levant Company, was not considerable enough to supply any 

 notable amount of revenue, much was hoped from it. The 

 attempt of the Crown to obtain a larger revenue from the 

 trade than it could under the old customs was made at a 

 later date than the year with which these volumes close, as 

 was also the arbitrary tax of 5^-. a hundredweight imposed by 

 James I, at the instigation of Cecil an act which gave im- 

 mediate occasion to the judgment of the exchequer in the 

 case of Bates, and made Parliament steadily resolute in its 

 determination to deny the Crown the right to any tax of any 

 kind save that which was granted by the Commons. The 

 supply of the article had, it is clear, become abundant, 

 and the trade with the Levant, whether in the hands of 



